Advertising Economic Forum Is Coming to Ad Week NYC 2026
At this private, invite-only experience during Ad Week NYC, our industry’s most innovative practitioners, strategists, and decision-makers will tackle the industry’s biggest shifts (from AI to investment) through honest conversations, data-sharing, and collaboration-driven outcomes. Expect fireside chats with leaders shaping the market, sharp insights from venture perspectives, and candid conversations with peers who get it.
Tue Oct 6, 2026 12:30 PM – 6:00 PM
Horizon Media HQ (75 Varick Street, NYC)
Rooftop cocktail reception to follow
What is the Advertising Economic Forum?
The Advertising Economic Forum (AdEF) was created to solve a problem: most industry events trade substance for networking. Panels are safe, sponsor-driven, and forgettable. Too often, agendas are shaped by who paid for stage time, not by what practitioners actually need to talk about. Attendees leave with a few surface-level soundbites and the sense that nothing real happened.
AdEF flips that formula. It’s not a stage for sales pitches. It’s a working session where CFOs, CEOs, investors, publishers, buyers, and operators come together to make sense of the chaos and start fixing it. The agenda is built as a story, digging into the financial realities, operational pressures, and incentives that are reshaping advertising. With no press in the room, conversations stay candid and grounded.
The goal is simple: create the conditions for honest, high-value conversations and give the right people the room to get deals done.
Walk Out with Traction, Not Talk
Pivotal Ideas
You’ll leave with insights shaped by financial realities, operational pressures, and market dynamics that define who wins and who loses.
Lucrative Connections
You’ll connect with senior decision-makers and investors who move capital, make deals happen, and can change the trajectory of a business.
Actionable Clarity
You’ll gain a grounded view of where the industry is headed, what forces are shaping it, and how to position yourself to create future value.
The Principles That Drive AdEF
AdEF is candid, collaborative, and built for people who want to move the industry forward, not just talk about it. These four principles guide how we show up, how we talk to each other, and what we build next through our work together. This is how real progress begins.
Content
Content is the backbone of AdEF. We focus on finance-first, narrative-driven programming that delivers insight, truth-seeking, and the ideas that actually matter.
Conversation
Conversation is the necessary collision of perspectives: candid, analytical, unscripted exchanges that deepen understanding and challenge convention.
Connection
Connections are the high-caliber relationships that emerge when decision-makers, operators, and investors meet in a serious environment designed for action, not chatter.
Collaboration
Collaboration is the moment shared ideas translate into traction: deals, partnerships, and outcomes that move businesses forward and help deals get made.
Your AdEF Agenda
The agenda is designed to foster thought-provoking conversations, meaningful connections, and critical deal-making. In addition to curated networking sessions, here is a preview of what we’re planning for this spring.
Horizon Media HQ
75 Varick Street
New York, NY 10013
The Advertising Economic Forum is Produced by
